At this point, there’s no doubt that Donald Trump is a pathological liar, with almost every word out of his mouth to varying degrees false. So, it’s not surprising that Trump would surround himself with others of his ilk – his campaign manager, for instance, or his state chairs. Prime example: check out the following clips from a debate recap by Trump’s Virginia chair Corey Stewart on WJLA’s “Good Morning Washington” this morning and check out the lies. Pretty much, this is a case of “you know he’s lying when you see his lips moving.”
First, check out this clip in which Stewart is wildly dishonest about polls of last night’s debate. The fact is, the “polls” Stewarts cites – Time and The Hill – were not real, scientific, statistically-valid polls at all, but online polls in which anyone could vote, and which Trump supporters swarmed…then bragged about “winning” the “polls.” Typical, pathologically dishonest stuff from Trump and Company. In reality, CNN’s real, scientific, statistically-valid poll of the debate found that “Hillary Clinton was deemed the winner of Monday night’s debate by 62% of voters who tuned in to watch, while just 27% said they thought Donald Trump had the better night.” That’s right, a huge win for Clinton. Also check out Republican Frank Luntz’s focus group results, which found that 16 undecided voters felt that Clinton had won the debate, 5 said Trump and the other 6 were tied. So much for whatever b.s. Corey Stewart was pulling out of his hindquarters. Finally, note that the interviewers failed to call Stewart out on his lies here. Not good.
Next, check out Stewart defending “stop and frisk” and on racial tension more broadly. According to Stewart, “stop and frisk” is “not unconstitutional,” “it’s used in cities throughout the country,” and that the key is simply to make sure there’s “no racial profiling.” In fact, “stop and frisk” WAS deemed unconstitutional in New York State. Among other problems, “stop and frisk” – as carried out in New York – was “proven to be racially motivated, ineffective and unconstitutional,”violating both the fourth amendment (unreasonable searches and seizures) and the 14th amendment (Equal Protection Clause). Anyway, “stop and frisk” is highly controversial for a bunch of reasons – constitutional, racial, etc. – but it’s not surprising that an authoritarian like Stewart would defend it.
Stewart further claims, by the way, that “everything is going to hell” in the inner city (false), that it’s all Democrats’ fault (wildly false), and that more jobs (which he claims, falsely, that Trump would bring) would solve all those problems (also false). Other than that, great job (not) by Stewart. And again, great job (not) by the journalists, who failed to correct Stewart’s bull**** on the spot.
Last but not least, check out Stewart arguing that people don’t care about Trump’s tax returns or about his “birtherism.” According to Stewart, people are “not concerned about small issues like this and the ‘birther’ issue and all that other garbage.” Of course, Stewart conveniently fails to mention that “62% of voters think it’s either very important or somewhat important to them that candidates release their returns.” As for “birtherism,” actually a LOT of people – African Americans, obviously, but many other people as well – care very much that the Republican nominee for President waged a racist, conspiracy-theory campaign over several years aimed at delegitimizing America’s first African-American President. And yet again, I don’t hear the journalists challenging Stewart on any of this. #FAIL all around.
P.S. For an infinitely better – accurate, factual, etc. – analysis of last night’s debate, see here for Del. Rip Sullivan on the same show.
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